Liquid Eyes
by TendancyToLive
Summary: *First submission* A quick look into the life of Itachi and an OC character before he joins the Akatsuki. A liquid-eyed girl called Izanami.


She was being so very calm about it all. Then again, she had been disturbingly calm.

Even the day they met, at the academy.

_It had been a heavy, hot day. Drowsiness floated through the air, purring in everyone's chests, carried by the sounds of cicadas. As usual, the only people not affected were the children. _

_Itachi wasn't particularly crazy about joining the boys in their loud, rough games. Instead, he decided to go train in the welcoming shade of the trees. He had just set down his unfinished lunch at the base of a large tree, felt the familiar smooth metal slip so easily through his hands and land with a thud in the tree trunk, when he noticed the presence of another person. _

_A girl seated at the base of another tree was blinking softly at the kunai, then gently turned her liquid eyes to him. Izanami Uchiha. A girl from his clan, very low down in the clan, in the most distant branch. A pixie's face framed by tousled hair and liquid eyes that seeped into his. That was Izanami Uchiha. _

She'd been so calm about the fact that a kunai had landed dangerously close to her, calm about the fact that the clan heir was staring down at her. Her ability to stay calm, serious, mellow and understanding at all times cemented their friendship, which withstood the passage of time impressively. It adapted and changed to every circumstance.

She simply continued to stare at him gently in the eye, soft emotions seeping from her eyes into his as he confided his promotion as an ANBU captain to her.

So calm, like nothing could ever surprise her. Nothing probably ever could, or did, because she had the rare gift of accurate intuition.

She hadn't jumped at the feel of his fingers intertwining with hers, and smiled knowingly as the fireworks reflected in her eyes.

When he'd shouted his fury at the clan to the other members, he could sense her leaning against the wall on the other side, waiting for him.

"It really is pathetic, isn't it?" she'd whispered in his ear that night as they lay on the soft grassy bank, their forms silhouetted as the moon floated just behind them.

He was watching her this very minute, through the window, bidding her parents goodnight.

Or, if her intuition was once again correct, goodbye.

That had been the moment he's loved her the most.

"_You've been ordered to do something terrible." she said softly._

_He ducked his head and her hands found his._

"_I've been ordered to kill the clan."_

_She only blinked sadly._

"_I thought they'd try to get rid of us soon."_

"_You knew."_

"_Of course. I'd knew they'd use you. How could they not?"_

"_Izanami..."_

_she smiled up gently at him._

"_And I know that includes me. I would desert with you, but you mean more to me than my own life. You knew I'd choose death."_

Her calmness had disturbed him in a way that it never had.

And tonight was the night.

The lights turned off in her house, the beacon of halt silenced.

He entered her room.

She was standing by the window, leaning against the wall, watching the orb-like moon.

"It's tonight, isn't it."

It wasn't a question.

Her eyes found his.

Ink. Again, and always, they were like ink.

"Truthfully, I'm afraid of death. Console me?"

He frowned at the liquid eyes.

"You're last. Go to sleep, Izanami."

Still fully clothed, she lay down on her bed and pulled his hand to her cheek.

And slowly but surely, she fell asleep.

She was calm girl, you see. Like she didn't have nerves.

He stood still for a good half-hour after her breathing had become deep, even and warm. As the moon his behind a cloud, he took a last look at the doomed girls face, took a clean kunai and slid it across her throat, letting her life bleed out. Her breathing ceased but nothing else changed. She still looked as disturbingly peaceful as ever.

"Goodnight, Izanami." he mumbled.

And with that he left.

When he cried a few minutes later, he was crying for the people he had just massacred, for the terrible fate he'd left his precious younger brother and a small part of him wept for that disturbingly calm person, the person with liquid eyes.


End file.
